Once Upon a Time
by Liberty Love and Roses
Summary: The princess fell for the dragon and the prince kissed the witch. —NaLu, Gruvia; AU


**Yo yo!**

 **I just kind of, sort of, really wanted to write a Fairy Tail fic for a while, but I had no idea where and how to begin.**

 **But eventually, I just went for it and tried my luck and this little number is the result!**

 **This is meant to be a short, [rather awful] fairytale-like thing, and uh, yeah.**

 **Please read and review!**

 **WARNING: there is a possibility that this is awful.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fairy Tail (because if I did, [SPOILER] NaLu would be canon in the manga. Anime, I'm relying on you for this).**

* * *

 _Once Upon a Time:_

 _The princess fell for the dragon and the prince kissed the witch._

* * *

Lucy Heartfilia, only heiress to the throne, awakes in a tall tower to the burn of her lips. She sees scales along his arms, and eyes sharp yet benign, he guards her, a glow radiating from the core of his soul, all orange and warm, a fire even the rain can't extinguish.

A dragon.

And Lucy knows fear, but she doesn't quite know how to fear him.

* * *

Juvia Lockheart, the villain of this story, knows jealousy as if it were a song, humming bitter notes as she watches the pretty princess awake to the kiss of a damn dragon.

Juvia is crying, but who cares? She's just the villain of the story, anyway.

But the ice prince observes, and he finds innocence in her cold, cold heart.

* * *

Natsu Dragneel, the dragon eternally misunderstood, turns to find a princess asleep in the tall, cold tower — golden hair, weaved together into a long braid, cascading down her shoulder, her hands neatly entwined atop her stomach, a smile ever so slight, pink as it graces her lips.

She almost looks at peace.

But Natsu is a witness to her suffering, and his sense of justice is already a fire too wild to tame. So he kisses her, but only for the sake of breaking the spell.

Somewhere, his sense of justice must have dwindled, for he would not mind doing it again.

* * *

Gray Fullbuster, the ice-wielding prince, is at the peak of the tower. In it, the witch, and somewhere else, the princess. He has plans, all flamboyance and grandeur, but they dissipate into the air when he hears the witch cry.

Another broken soul to rescue, another damsel in distress.

He can't save both of them, and he should be saving the princess, but he doesn't. He chooses the witch. If he can save her and her soul, then maybe she could, in turn, let the princess go. And this is risky, he knows, but if there is any justice in the world, then his foolishness may prevail just this once.

He retracts his ice sword and extends his hand, watching the witch watch him with curious eyes.

She has very beautiful eyes.

* * *

Gray laughs at Natsu's headstrong nature and determination to protect the princess. He has never heard of a good dragon, and for this particular beast, he doesn't want to.

( _Don't you know? The one to slay the dragon is the one to whom its back is turned._ )

* * *

And Natsu laughs at Gray's attempt to restore rationale and logic to a contorted world. He has never heard of a prince playing hero to a villain, and while he can accept it, he just wants to vex the boy.

( _Says the prince who saved the witch..._

 _... and why the hell are you naked?_ )

* * *

In a world of objective morality, Juvia knows that Gray-sama has done wrong by saving her. She is the witch, she is the villain, the envious bitch who kidnapped the beautiful princess, and this is fact.

Juvia _is_ envious, she won't deny it, but not of the princess' beauty. When she has lived a life of misery, pain and isolation, consequence of her everlasting rain, a fault in her magic, she is right to only seek revenge.

And Princess Lucy, much loved by everybody, is reminiscent of the sun. It vexed her, frankly enough, and so she thought that perhaps, by kidnapping the princess, she could inflict on everybody the suffering and misery they inflicted on her.

( _So Juvia apologises for kidnapping you._ )

* * *

Lucy laughs, and is quick to disagree with her, as if fact could be disagreed with in the first place, as if fact were subjective, as if fact were just mere opinion and stigma.

( _Goodness! Witches are never honest, are they? Idiot. Sounds like to me you only wanted company._ )

She sees the bewildered confusion with which Juvia spares her a glance, and she walks up, abandoning all correct posture as to not intimidate, but still exuding confidence in her gait.

And then the princess embraces the witch.

* * *

A florid blush blooms across Juvia's cheeks, and she tries to resist and reject the princess, but all in vain, for Lucy only wraps her arms around tighter.

( _But Juvia is evil, and Juvia is a witch!_ )

Juvia makes some attempt at explaining the fact, but the princess is unyielding and persistent and despairingly stubborn.

( _You wanted a friend. You thought I, "reminiscent of the sun", could make your rain disappear. You aren't evil, Juvia; you are lonely._ )

* * *

 _As if fact could be disagreed with in the first place_ —

And fact is, Juvia is a witch, and a witch is empty and sadistic and cruel for the heck of it.

And fact is, Gray is a heroic prince, and a heroic prince can't and shouldn't save a witch.

— _as if fact were subjective_ —

And fact is, Natsu is a dragon, and a dragon doesn't save; it destroys.

And fact is, Lucy is a princess, and a princess falls for a prince; not a dragon.

— _as if fact were just mere opinion and stigma_.

* * *

"God," Juvia chokes out, burying her face into Lucy's shoulder, the frills of the princess's gown tickling her nose. "You're so conceited."

"And you're a twisted idiot," Lucy retorts. "How on earth did you plan to make friends by kidnapping people and putting them to sleep?"

Juvia flushes red again and stutters for the princess to shut up, but Lucy starts laughing, and eventually, so does she.

* * *

The dragon and the prince exchange nicknames profane enough to make Juvia faint (but Lucy suspects that Juvia cares less about the profanity and is more intrigued by the contrast of Gray's upbringing and mannerisms), and Lucy, determined to intervene, runs to the dragon.

And then she wraps her arms around him from behind, her actions greatly reminiscent of an embrace, and this would embarrass her greatly if done in any other context.

The dragon is sturdy, strong, and she can feel from the tension in his body that he possesses enough power to crush her bones with a fist alone. She is essentially hurling herself in harm's way. But he softens, stops, peering at her with curiosity and worry and then the most energetic grin Lucy has ever seen.

(Gray stops too, and this should be the object of her intention, but the princess is too busy investing her thoughts elsewhere.)

She lets go in an instant, resigning her arms to her sides.

"You need to stop fighting," she murmurs. Her gaze drifts to his grin, and she thinks about him kissing her, the burn of her lips. A pink blush creeps along her cheeks. "Everything's over now," she continues, clearing her throat. "Juvia has apologised. So stop."

"Well," Juvia says, eyes awash with affection, "if Gray-sama were fighting for Juvia's sake, Juvia wouldn't mind—"

"Juvia!" the princess exclaims, alarmed and cheeks now flushed for a different reason.

* * *

There is still a long way to happily ever after; Juvia's crime has been ignored upon the princess's request (but more importantly to the witch, by the _prince's_ request, which was hardly a factor), Gray is occupied trying to run away from aforementioned witch (but he can't imagine his life anymore without her company), Lucy is stuck as a close friend of the dragon (he is far too dense to be charmed by grace and subtle seduction), and Natsu has made the princess stuck as his close friend (he wonders if close friends normally kiss).

But they are happy, and ever after is soon to come.

* * *

 **The end!**

 **So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed this! I may have gotten slightly lazy near the end, but hopefully it's all still okay-ish! I didn't proofread it properly either (a small skim, because I'm always too simultaneously excited and nervous to just upload stuff already), so if you spot any mistakes, please notify me!**

 **Pretty please drop a review!**

 **(God, my Author's Notes are so sloppy and... naked-looking?... nowadays.)**

 **~ Adieu!**

 **X's and O's,**

 **Liberty!**

 **(P.S. The summary is half wrong on purpose.)**

 **(P.S.S. Do fairies have tails, and do dragons have whiskers? We shall never know.)**


End file.
